Shining a light on claims over solar panels

In his article on solar farms (Yorkshire Post, May 8) Neil Hudson says “they can still generate power even on a cloudy winter day”. This kind of claim is often made in advertisements for solar panels and, whilst it is true in the strict sense, I would suggest that it is slightly misleading.

Some figures will illustrate why I say this. I have a number of photovoltaic panels and over the past two years the average energy produced for the period May 20 to July 20 has been 409 kw-hrs, whilst for the past three years the average for the period November 20 to January 20 has been a mere 48 kw-hrs.

This latter period includes many days when the energy produced has been less than 1kw-hr. I believe these figures reveal the truth about solar panels on cloudy winter days. Over the past two-and-a-half years the maximum daily output has been 11.9 kw-hrs, the minimum 0.

From: Frank Wilson, Butternab Road, Beaumont Park, Huddersfield.

Joanne Ginley’s article concerning the controversial plans to site a wind farm in the Yorkshire Wolds near Malton, (Yorkshire Post, May 9) quotes RWE NPower Renewables as saying: “The electricity produced by the wind farm would offset the production of CO2 by between 18,400 and 62,500 tonnes per year”.

This presumably assumes – as is usually the case when these sorts of figures are bandied about – that the wind farm will be at least carbon neutral in its construction and installation which, of course, will manifestly not be the case.

The fact of the matter is that the vast quantities of steel, concrete, manpower and so on which will be used is bound to outweigh the carbon savings gained over its lifetime.